Evaluation

AS MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION
EDWARD KIRK
“VAPERIUS”

Introduction
As part of my As media studies course we were required to produce two different pieces of film, artefact one and two, along with a written element to accompany both of these tasks. This is my evaluation of all that I have done focusing on my second film artefact entitles “Vamperius”.

Planning

Genre
Although right from the start I decided my film was going to be of the horror genre I decided to make it contemporary because that way I could make it more effective as I don’t have any large gothic buildings, or a large budget to spend on big sets instead I used what I had effectively, however I was still able to use the gothic imagery that appears in classic horror films. This way I think that it is easily Identifiable as a horror film whilst exploring the contemporary idea, the audience feed back that I have received clearly shows this with everyone recognising my film as being of the horror genre. The film I have produced fits the genre quite well; the dark eerie atmosphere that I created through the use of music, shooting locations and digetic sounds is a perfect environment for a horror film. By making a horror film I want to shock and scare the audience, build suspense and create an eerie tension, I feel that I have achieved this and my audience feedback shows that I am correct, as it is an opening I have made sure that nothing too shocking is shown and when action does occur it is in the form of shadows, this only adds to the suspense further.

Research
The research that I carried out enabled e to really understand the genre that I had chosen, this also helped with a lot of creative decisions that I would make during the planning and making of the film. I researched gothic codes and horror films and I feel that the research that I had put in gave e the foundation to produce a gripping and tense atmosphere.

Storyboards and Shooting Scripts
To plan my second artefact I started of by producing a conceptual storyboard with the main ideas for my scenes I wanted to produce, I then produced a working storyboard with a stills camera by going out and taking photos of those same conceptual scenes this was the way I produced my storyboard. After the production of my story board I produced two timelines, one showing sound in my two minute piece, and the other showing vision and the length of each scene. After these two planning items were done I them put together a shooting script describing which dates I was to shoot the film and at what times. This way of planning enabled me to be fully prepared for the actual task of filming, this was extremely helpful, especially given the time frame I had to shoot in with regards to lighting, too early and it would have been too light therefore compromising the dark eerie atmosphere which is a fundamental horror code, and if I had filmed too late, it would have been too dark therefore meaning the camera would not have been able to pick up any footage. Planning in this way also allowed me to have the freedom to make creative decisions in the spaces between planning and shooting the film itself as I already knew what I wanted.

Locations
I have shot the entire film around locations in my hometown of Hunstanton, Norfolk. The locations that I have picked are characteristic of the horror genre. I picked areas that would look especially dark and eerie with the light that I filmed under, for example I filmed quite a few scenes in alleyways to add an extra feeling of an enclosed space and claustrophobia, and with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide it would be the perfect place for an attack. I also did a lot of filming around a local church, the crosses on top of the building were a brilliant source of gothic imagery, and even though I wanted to explore a contemporary theme I feel that this didn’t compromise the idea whilst adding easily identifiable symbolism. Overall my choice of location enabled me to film smooth flowing film because the locations that I shot fitted together seemingly as if they were right next to each other, even though they were quite a way away from each other.

Actors
My film only had two actors, one of which only appears briefly within the last ten seconds or so. Aidan Gollaglee had the main part of my film as the victim, with Alex Rice playing the vampire that attacks him. Both proved to be valuable members of the cast with Aidan’s acting skills being quite worthy of the task in hand, and Alex’s vocal skills for the final attack scene being very much what I wanted from him. Both actors followed my directions and I feel that I got exactly what I wanted out of both of them. Logistically both live in the local area, Aidan living in Hunstanton and Alex living in a local town. It was easy for us to arrange mutually beneficial date over us to film.

Props
The only two props that I used on the film were a small torch that Aidan pulled out whilst walking through the last alleyway to illuminate his path, and fake blood which I covered Aidan in after he was attacked by the vampire played by Alex. Although the torch was readily available and very easy to just pick up and take when ever I needed, the fake blood had to be made in preparation for filming, I decided to buy in bulk the ingredients used for making the fake blood therefore I could easily make as much blood as I wanted when ever I wanted, this easily solved the problem.

Technology
In this section I will describe the technological techniques and objects that I have, used and how I have use them, I am very comfortable with technology and technological processes, I a quite a comfortable and advanced user of adobe Photoshop. With this technological insight I feel that I have been able to get the most out of the technology that I have used.

Software
Below is a list of the software which I have used to create not only my final production, but a lot of the planning work as well.
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Premier Elements
Apple iMovie HD
MPEG Streamclip

Adobe Photoshop: I used this as my primary photo editing software so for the menu on my dvd and the background on my blog I used photoshop, I also used this to design my timeline template from scratch and to create my storyboard.

Adobe Premier Elements: This was the program that I used to edit all my digital film and also create and burn the dvd I think that because I have frequently used this software before and I know a lot of the basic and advanced features I was able to get the most out of it and produce a quality product,

Apple iMovie HD: This was the movie editing software that we were originally advised to use as our school uses apple Mac system for media coursework. However I feel that apple Macs are an inferior system and I decided to use my already uploaded footage on the Mac and transfer it to a PC system.

MPEG Streamclip: This is a piece of software that I downloaded from the internet to convert the Mac .dv video format into an easily usable .avi format that is able to be used on PC. Although I was able to export the video from the Macs directly in the .avi format I decided to export them as .dv and convert them later, as this did not reduce their quality.

Hardware
I used two pieces of hardware to produce my film and conceptual planning work. I filmed my piece on a digital video camera that took mini dv tapes, this meant that I did not have to bring a cumbersome camera into school; instead all I had to bring was the dv tape to upload my work onto the Macs. For my storyboard I used a digital stills camera this was easily usable and I had no trouble importing the pictures onto a computer and editing them to produce the storyboard.

Filming
Overall the filming process went quite well, all being done quite quickly and running remarkably smoothly. I made sure that all the props that I needed were ready especially the fake blood, and that the conditions that I was filming in were as expected.


Editing
In this section I will go through some of the editing processes that I have used and how and why I have achieved what I have produced. The editing that I have performed is designed to be virtually unnoticeable and I think that I have achieved this; I have made sure that I cut each scene precisely and correctly to avoid any glitches as well dodgy looking segments of film. I have used a lot of hard cuts to achieve a dynamic perspective on the action that is occurring, this makes the audience feel tense and anxious as they attempt to anticipate what will happen.


Continuity
I feel that I have learnt a lot from producing my first artefact, and I have been careful when filming and editing my second artefact because of the lessons that I have learnt. Due to this I was able to go through with my second artefact with very few continuity issues. I have stuck to the basic principles of continuity in both vision and sound and linking them both together when necessary.

Vision
The filming that I have done was well thought through and I think it reflects my skills as a film maker well, given the equipment and knowledge I have been able to use. I chose to film in locations that fitted together well and looked like they were very close to each other, even though they were at opposite ends of the same town. I chose places that were very characteristic of the genre that I have chosen I also edited them well as to retain the continuity that I had thought about during my filming process.

Sound
I think that my biggest problem regarding sound was the fact that filming at 6 o’clock at night, although dark does not mean that people are not driving their cars and walking about, the film I recorded was simply too noisy. The way I solved this was by adding in digetic sound to my film, rather than having the actual noise captured by the camera itself. I have dealt with this issue quite well by downloading royalty free digetics and syncing them to the video to retain continuity. For example, Aidan looks up at a tree and hears birds flying off suggesting that he is watching birds fly away. I also added in every footstep and wind ambience to give the film a real life feel to it.

Mistakes
The only mistake that I made that appeared in an artefact was on the first artefact. I edited the last scene too short, cutting out a small amount of digetic conversation and making it look unnatural. I was very careful not to make the same editing mistakes on my second artefact; even though there was no speech I was careful with my cutting. The only other mistake that I made was on artefact 2 when I first filmed the piece. I originally filmed artefact 2 around 6 o clock, this proved to be far too dark for the camera that I was using to cope, however, this was easily rectified by setting off at an earlier time and reshooting almost all of the scenes again another night.

Audience
My target audience was 15 plus I feel that I have not showed anything that Is inappropriate for this audience, however I do feel that I have created the right atmosphere and sense of tension through my use of sharp cuts and suitable music and diegetics.

Audience Feedback
As I have produced a film I have gathered a few responses from my audience to see if they were able to understand the film fully and decipher what kind of film I was trying to portray. I formulated a questionnaire for people to fill out after watching the film. Overall the audience response that I got was quite good. People understood immediately what genre of film I had produced. They all thought that the way that I had edited the film was good. Everyone thought that the camera work that I had exhibited was good, they all thought the music fitted, and the one main thing they all said was that they wanted to keep watching, the eerie and tense atmosphere I had created worked and people anted to continue watching as they were gripped by the film.

Conclusion
Overall I think that I have produced a piece of film that does accurately reflect my talents in all areas of media production, I have put a lot of time, work and effort into producing this piece of film and I’m sure that I have delivered what I set out to achieve and the audience feedback I have received corroborates this as the audience have understood what I have produced and this shows that it fits the codes and conventions of my genre.

Why I Did What

Now that I have finished all the editing, filming, creating my artefact in general, I thought that I would take this opportunity to say why I have done some of the things that appear in my film, so here I go…

I chose to do a contemporary horror piece so that I could make it more effective, I don’t have a massive budget, or a massive castle, so I made do with what I had, lots and lots of dark alleyways, and a lovely church.

I used the alleyways, because I thought it would be such a perfect setting for the horror, it’s a confined space, not easily escapable, dark, dingy, gives a sense of isolation, all of these add up to the perfect location for an attack, and indeed a perfect place to shoot a horror film.

I also used the church that we have in the town as churches are brilliant gothic imagery and I couldn’t pass that opportunity down, NO CHANCE! Even though its supposed to be contemporary, I thought it was only right to use gothic imagery, especially because it’s a supernatural horror, and that has A LOT of gothic connotations.

I chose to film later in the day, verging on night for two reasons, A. the first time I filmed at night around 8 the film was too dark and B. because its horror and so it was only natural for me to film at night, even though the quality was reduced.

I love the diegetics that I have used, the cold wind really gives a sense of isolation as If no one else is around because of the weather and that he is alone. You can hear echoes of dogs barking in the distance, this adds an eerie sense to the whole experience. I also added in thunder especially on the scene when you first see the cross of the church, linking it in with the associations that are carried with religion, life, death and the wrath of god.

The small torch that Aidan uses represents the way that darkness is closing in on him, with the relatively small beam only illuminating small regions, also signifying his imminent death.

I think that the use of shadows is quite effective as you never really see the attacker, only his shadow is displayed to the audience, adding a further sense of mystery.

Artefact 2: Editing Finished

I have finished editing my artifact 2 and have made a few changes to previous events, I am no longer going to use original music, i have found a piece called 'Lurking Horror' from the computer game called 'The Movies' created by Lionhead studios. I have also silenced all of the clips of film and added all digetic sounds in myself, I found an amazing website full of ambiance and digetic sound, http://www.freesound.org/ is a project designed so that users may upload rights free sound for others to use. I managed to sync all of the digetics with the video that appears retaining continuity, i am also pleased with allot of the digetics i have used, i have put allot of attention to detail in, for example, when Aidan leaves the church yard he looks up to his left, if you listen carefully you hear some birds fly off, indicating he was looking at the birds fly off from a tree. I was also careful to make the music fit the video with areas of high tension getting equally fitting video. I like the way i end the film with digetics sound of cold wind, i think it adds a nice sense of isolation, this is one thing i wanted to get across when making the film, by having Aidan ALONE, making him seem vulnerable.

Horror Research 3: Films of Horror

Van Helsing

Made: 2004

Film Company: Universal Pictures

Starring:
Hugh Jackman
Kate Beckinsale
Richard Roxburgh
David Wenham
Shuler Hensley
Elena Anaya
Will Kemp
Kevin J. O'Connor
Alun Armstrong

Director: Stephen Sommers

Producers:
Stephen Sommers

Bob Ducsay

Sub Genre: Supernatural Horror

Synopsis: Loosely based an a character from Bram Stoker’s book ‘Dracula’ Van Helsing is a monster hunter who works for the Knights of the Holy Order based in Vatican city. The film revolves around Helsing helping a Transylvanian family to kill Dracula and his family so that their ancestors may go to heaven. Frankenstein’s monster and Two werewolves (one of which is Van Helsing) make an appearance also. The final battle between Van Helsing and Dracula is fought at the top of a clock tower in Draculas lair, with Van Helsing, after having turned into a werewolf, finally killing Dracula by biting his neck.

Other Supernatural Horror Films:


The Exorcist

A

The Phantom of The Opera

A

The invisible Man

Alien

Made: 1979

Film Company: 20th Century Fox

Starring:
Veronica Cartwright

Ian Holm
John Hurt
Yaphet Kotto
Tom Skerritt
Harry Dean Stanton
Sigourney Weaver

Director: Ridley Scott

Producers:
Gordon Carroll
David Giler
Walter Hill

Sub Genre: Scientific Horror

Synopsis:
A crew of 7 are returning from a distant planet Thedus aboard their commercial towing ship the Nostromo. Whilst the crew are all in stasis the ship receives a message from an unknown source on a nearby planetoid, the ships automatic systems awaken the crew from stasis. The ship lands on the planetoid and discovers the source of the transmissions, an alien ship with all of its crew brutally murdered, one of the Nostromo’s crew then investigates a room filled with eggs, one of which hatches, and the resulting creature latches onto the crew members face. Going against health and safety regulations the crew member is brought back to the sick bay where he is pronounced dead, along with the creature attached to his face. After a while the crew member suddenly wakes up and shortly afterwards, the matured alien young bursts out of his chest and runs off to another part of the ship. After killing all but one of the crew the alien is finally defeated and the ship resets its course for earth.

Other Scientific Horror Films:



Eight Legged Freaks





A




Predator








Resident Evil

Halloween

Made: 1978

Film Company: Compass International Pictures

Starring:
Donald Pleasence
Jamie Lee Curtis
Nick Castle
Nancy Loomis
P. J. Soles
Charles Cyphers
Kyle Richards
Brian Andrews

Director: John Carpenter

Producers:
Debra HillJohn CarpenterKool LusbyIrwin YablansMoustapha Akkad

Sub Genre: Naturalistic Horror

Synopsis: On Halloween 1963 Michael Myers aged six brutally murders his 17 year old sister who is tasked with babysitting him; his parents arrive home almost immediately and send him to Smith’s Grove Warren County Sanatorium where he is placed under the care of child psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis. Eight years of treatment lead Dr. Loomis to conclude that Myers is pure evil. 7 years later Myers is now an adult and on transfer to be prosecuted he escapes and returns to his home town of Haddonfield. Upon returning home he stalks and kills three teenagers. Myers finally attacks a fourth teenager whom stabs him in the chest with a knife, however this does not stop him and Myers beings to strangle her, until Dr. Loomis rescues her shooting Myers 6 times, making him fall off of the houses second storey balcony, however on further inspection, Myers body is nowhere to be found.

Other Naturalistic Horror Films:


Friday the 13th





A

A Nightmare on Elm Street

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Artefact 2: Edit Finished, Awaiting a Soundtrack

I have finished editing my film, on the most part, and am only await a soundtrack which is kindly being created by a friend of mine, therefore making it original. I have also burned a prototype DVD.

Artefact 2: Filming Finished

I finished doing all of my filming last night, as the shots from my first filming stint were too dark, I am very pleased with what I have got and hopefully the editing I put in will do it justice.

Below is the shooting script that shows my filming process

For “Shot Type” abbreviations have been used
CU=Close Up
MS=Medium Shot
MLS=Medium Long Shot
LS=Long Shot
VLS=Very Long Shot

Shot No: 1
Shot Description: Aidan leaves the conservative club and walks into the alleyway on the right of the camera
Shot Type: Still shot, VLS, Moving Subject
Shot Location: Hunstanton Conservative Club
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 15:38
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing, Door to Conservative Club

Shot No: 2
Shot Description: A shot from a side alley in the alleyway of Aidan as he enters the alleyway.
Shot Type: Still shot MS, Moving Subject
Shot Location: alleyway by Hunstanton Conservative Club
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 15:40
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing

Shot No: 3
Shot Description: Aidan walks towards the camera, his silhouette cast by the light on the wall behind him adding to the air of mystery.
Shot Type: Still shot, VLS becomes MS, Moving Subject
Shot Location: alleyway by Hunstanton Conservative Club
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 15:41
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing

Shot No: 4
Shot Description: Turns a corner as he exits the alleyway and walks towards the right of the camera.
Shot Type: Still shot, MS, Moving Subject
Shot Location: alleyway by Hunstanton Conservative Club
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 15:42
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing

Shot No: 5
Shot Description: The shot starts off with a shot of a cross on top of a church the camera then pans down.
Shot Type: Vertical Pan
Shot Location: North side of St Edmunds Church Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 15:51
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing

Shot No: 6
Shot Description: Aidan walks past the church, this time passing the camera on the left.
Shot Type: Still shot, Moving Subject VLS becomes MS
Shot Location: North side of St Edmunds Church Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 15:51
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing

Shot No: 7
Shot Description: Aidan walks through another alleyway and past a small out building attached to the church.
Shot Type: Still/Diagonal pan, Moving Subject VLS
Shot Location: East side of St Edmunds Church Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 15:54
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing

Shot No: 8
Shot Description: The shot comes to rest after having panned upwards on the cross on top of the church.
Shot Type: Vertical Pan
Shot Location: East side of St Edmunds Church Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 15:54
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing

Shot No: 9
Shot Description: Shot of Aidan walking along the far side of the church.
Shot Type: Horizontal Pan, VLS, Moving Subject
Shot Location: South side of St Edmunds Church Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 15:59
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing

Shot No: 10
Shot Description: Aidan walks the length of the church and disappears around the corner.
Shot Type: Horizontal Pan, VLS, Moving Subject
Shot Location: South side of St Edmunds Church Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 15:59
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing

Shot No: 11
Shot Description: Shot from the far side of the church as Aidan passes the camera, camera pans with his movement.
Shot Type: Horizontal Pan, Moving Subject, MLS
Shot Location: West side of St Edmunds Church Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 16:01
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing

Shot No: 12
Shot Description: Aidan continues down the path with the camera fixed after having panned with him.
Shot Type: Still, Moving Subject, LS
Shot Location: West side of St Edmunds Church Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 16:01
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing

Shot No: 13
Shot Description: A shot from further on along the church yard, Aidan leaves the church yard and turns a corner on the left.
Shot Type: Still Shot, Moving Subject, VLS becomes MLS
Shot Location: Exit of St Edmunds Church Hunstanton on the street Northgate
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 16:03
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing

Shot No: 14
Shot Description: Further on down the street Aidan crosses the road walking left across the camera, with the camera panning with his movement.
Shot Type: Horizontal Pan, Moving Subject, LS
Shot Location: Outside Hunstanton Cubs hut, York Avenue, Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 16:21
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing

Shot No: 15
Shot Description: A side shot of Aidan entering another alleyway after he has crossed the street.
Shot Type: Still Shot, Moving Subject, MS
Shot Location: Entrance to an alleyway on York Avenue, Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 16:24
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing

Shot No: 16
Shot Description: After Aidan enters the alleyway he walks down it and turns on his torch, he walks past the camera on the left.
Shot Type: Still Shot, Moving Subject, VLS becomes MS
Shot Location: an alleyway connecting York Avenue and Victoria Avenue, Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 16:26
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing, Torch

Shot No: 17
Shot Description: Shot of Aidan after he passes the camera, you see the torch light first, then he appears in front of camera, he hears a nosie then turns around.
Shot Type: Still shot, Moving Subject, MS becomes VLS
Shot Location: an alleyway connecting York Avenue and Victoria Avenue, Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 16:27
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing, Torch

Shot No: 18
Shot Description: After turning Aidan looks behind him searching for the source of the noise.
Shot Type: Still shot, Ends with vertical pan, CU
Shot Location: an alleyway connecting York Avenue and Victoria Avenue, Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 16:28
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Clothing, Torch

Shot No: 19
Shot Description: After having unsuccessfully searched for the source of the noise Aidan sets off again, away from the camera, upon nearing the end of the alleyway, he is pulled into a side alley, a snarl is heard.
Shot Type: Still shot, Moving subject, MS becomes VLS
Shot Location: an alleyway connecting York Avenue and Victoria Avenue, Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 16:28
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee, Alex Rice
Props: Clothing, Torch

Shot No: 20
Shot Description: The camera fades in and out, upon fading back in, Aidan has dropped his torch, and the resulting shadow shows the attack in shadows.
Shot Type: Still Shot, MS
Shot Location: an alleyway connecting York Avenue and Victoria Avenue, Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Sunday 16th November
Shooting Time: 16:30
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee, Alex Rice
Props: Clothing, Torch

Shot No: 21
Shot Description: After the attack has occurred Aidan’s dead, motionless body lies covered in blood.
Shot Type: Still Shot, CU
Shot Location: an alleyway connecting York Avenue and Victoria Avenue, Hunstanton
Shooting Date: Wednesday 5th November
Shooting Time: 18:48
Shot Requirements: Camera, Tripod
Actors: Aidan Gollaglee
Props: Fake Blood, Clothing, Torch

Artefact 2: Filming Begins

I have started filming my second artefact, I have spent one dark night filming, and i have got some of the shots that i want. However after uploading the film i have realised that i need to shoot it all again, what a brilliant waste of time.

Horror Research 2: Images of Horror

Gothic Codes

As a lot of horror is based on gothic writings and carries a lot of gothic imagery, I will start with some pictures that convey codes of the gothic genre.

Image of an abandoned church with graveyard, perfect place for a supernatural horror to occur. This sort of location is a good example of gothic imagery being used. The associations with death and afterlife that are linked with graveyards make this an ideal place for a horror film involving undead creatures e.g vampires or zombies.

Picture of a haunted house, this image is very stereotypical of the kind of haunted houses that appear in horror films with tall spires and a long pathway leading up to the house, gnarled trees appear in the front garden, and bad weather seems to surround the house constantly. Only one light appears to be on indicating that who ever is using the house is alone and possibly a recluse which adds the feeling of isolation that is already created by the house's desolate appearance.

Foggy graveyard, fog often appears in horrors, especially supernatural horrors, the fog gives an eerie appearance to an area, giving the impression that creatures or people of a sinister nature may be hiding where they may not be seen this is why the dark of night is also a crucial part of a lot horror films.

Supernatural Horror

The most recognised form of horror this section has the most recognised creatures and uses, more than any other genre of horror, the gothic codes that I have outlined

A werewolf from the film 'Van Helsing' this is one of the best known supernatural creature of the horror genre (along with the vampire) werewolves only weakness is silver, to stab a werewolf with a silver knife, or to shoot one with a silver bullet is the only way of killing the creatures. This particular image shows the full moon in the background which is a good piece of gothic imagery, as well as the darkness of the figure itself.

The vampire, possibly the most infamous creature of the horror genre. Vampires have an extreme averison to sunlight, being killed by it if they venture out into the day, they are also affected by crucifixes and holy water. The above picture is taken from the film '30 Days of Night'. As you can see the vampire has blood dripping from the mouth, this sort of imagery is characteristic of vampires and the horror genre in general.

The mummy from the 1932 film 'The Mummy'. The mummy of Imhoptep was revived after archaeolgists stumble upon his tomb and acidently read an ancient egyptian spell designed to give him life. Imhotep then wreaks havoc untill the manuscript containing the life giving spell is destroyed by the ancient godess Isis.

Regan MacNeil from ‘The Exorcist’ is possessed by a demon which giving her supernatural powers and making her speak extreme obscenities in a deeply man like voice. The demon is then removed from her by an exorcist who challenges the spirit to enter his body, upon which point the exorcist kills himself and the spirit. The extreme use of obscene language, horrific implications and disgusting scenes has made this one of the highest grossing horrors of all time. This is an example of possession and spirits being used in modern horror, not a type of supernatural creature that is often used.

Scientific Horror

Zombie from the film ‘Resident Evil’ the zombies from this film are created by a virus that has been spread causing corpses to be reanimated, all those that have been bitten becoming infected, this makes them a scientific horror, rather than zombies created by means of voodoo. The way that zombies are killed is by removing their head or destroying their brain.

The spiders from the Film ‘Eight Legged Freaks’ are mutated by radioactive insects that are given to them by their owner after a barrel of nuclear waste falls into the swamp where he collects the insects from. This is a good example of scientific horror as spiders are naturally occurring creatures that have, in this case, been changed through scientific means.


The creature from the film ‘Predator’ Is an alien that visits earth to hunt victims, with the intention of collecting their skulls as trophies. Although the creature only ever hunts armed victims, so when a group of commandos are on a mission where the ‘predator’ is hunting then the creature slowly hunts them down. This creature relies on advanced technology to kill its victims, unlike the ‘xenomorph’ aliens from the ‘Alien’ films


The xenomorph aliens from the ‘Alien’ films are all perfectly evolved to hunt and ultimately kill creatures. They lay they’re eggs in the stomach of victims, with their lava growing inside its stomach, once matured the adult xenomorph bursts out of the victims chest. This is a brilliant creature for a horror film as the idea of having a creature growing inside someone would touch on one of an audiences deepest fears.

Naturalistic Horror

Naturalistic horror, is the third and final sub genre of horror, the most common form of naturalistic horror is the ‘slasher’ movie. There are also other forms of naturalistic horror where the antagonist is not human, and is a known species of creature therefore separating it from creatures of the scientific genre.
Michael Myers from the film ‘Haloween’ Myers trademark weapon is a kitchen knife which he uses to murder teenagers. Myers killed his sister one day when she had to babysit him, when his parents returned home they found his sisters dead body, and sent Myers to a child mental institute, where he was declared to be ‘pure evil’. Myers then escapes when he is being transferred to an adult prison; he then makes his way back to his home town to murder more teenagers.
Leatherface is the main antagonist of the ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ films. Leatherface is himself a cannibal and also lives with a family of cannibals, whom often tease and abuse him. The character is represented as being severely mentally retarded and disturbed. Leatherface wears masks made of human skin to hide a severe facial abnormality that removed most of his nose. Leatherface uses either a chainsaw or a sledge hammer to brutally murder his victims.

Jason Voorhees makes his first appearance in the film ‘Friday the 13th Part 2’ after his mother is killed in the first film, he builds a shrine to her severed head around crystal lake, and for 5 years he guards the lake from intruders until a group of teenagers camp around the lake. He slowly murders all but one of the teenagers, whom escapes in an ambulance. Jason’s trademark weapon is his machete

Freddy Cruger is an undead serial killer from the ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ films. Freddie has the ability of murdering his victims from within their own dreams. Although he has the trademarks of a supernatural monster, Freddy is portrayed in a naturalistic ‘slasher’ movie. His trademark weapon are his metal claws.

Houston - We have fake blood

I was sifting through the internet and came across an article describing how to make fake blood, I decided to pop down to Tesco, and returned triumphantly with; golden syrup, cornflower, blue and red food colouring. Upon mixing these components, in the right ratios, fake blood was created and I am now blessed with the newest of my props.

Horror Research 1: A Bit of Background

Since I am doing a Horror film I have done some back ground research into the genre, more will follow.

There are three basic types of horror film; the supernatural, the scientific and the naturalistic

Scientific: Scientific horror usually has the scientist (usually mad) creating or finding something outside of nature, as yet undiscovered by man, these findings go wrong, and the resulting creature is released to wreak havoc on mankind, for example the 2002 film ‘Resident evil’ has the main antagonist as zombies that have created due to an experimental virus being released, (this differentiates them from supernatural zombies). However scientific horrors may also involve creatures that have not been created by man, for example aggressive aliens that wreak havoc on humanity such as in the 1995 film ‘Species’.

Scientific creatures from films
Zombies (occurring through scientific means)
Aliens
Predator from the ‘Predator’ films
Spiders from the film ‘Eight Legged Freaks’
The Monster from the film ‘Cloverfield’

Supernatural: This type of horror film has the main antagonist as a supernatural or mythical being or creature(s); these characters are often killed in a certain way for example a werewolf is killed with a silver bullet, otherwise they are immortal. This is by far the most common and most recognised form of horror movie. Supernatural horror often harks back to gothic periods with many codes of that era appearing, the 2004 film ‘Van Helsing’ is a good example of supernatural horror.

List of Supernatural Creatures used in supernatural horror
Werewolves
Zombies (depending on origin)
Vampires
Monsters
Mummies
Ghosts
Aliens

Naturalistic: More or less the opposite of supernatural horror, naturalistic horror is when the antagonist is not a supernatural creature or being and an ordinary known species occurring naturally to science, usually one or a group of people, naturalistic horror relies on basic fears and shocks to scare the audience, for example murder, dismemberment, cannibalism and helplessness. However it may not always be a human as the antagonist ordinary species of the animal kingdom may appear for example Alfred Hitchcock’s film ‘The Birds’

List of Naturalistic Movies
Texas chainsaw massacre
Hannibal
Silence of the lambs
When a stranger calls
The Shining
The Birds

Although these are the three basic forms of the horror genre, there are many overlaps in most cases, not only between the subgenres of horror but also between horror itself and the thriller genre. For example the film ‘When a Stranger Calls’ has horrific horror based implications, however the way that these ideas are portrayed is very much characteristic of the thriller genre.

Zombies are one good example of a horror based creature that overlaps, because they may be either supernatural or scientific horror, or a combination of both. An example of a scientific zombie would be those in the ‘Resident Evil’ films in which a virus infects the scientists and workers of a genetic research facility killing them and re-animating their dead bodies. However a supernatural example of a zombie would be the 1932 film ‘White Zombie’ in which voodoo magic is used to turn someone into a zombie. Finally an example of the two overlapping would be the explanation given by the original George A Romero film ‘Night of the Living Dead’ in which the corpses of the dead are reanimated due to radiation that is being emitted by a Russian satellite, this has both scientific and also supernatural elements to its plot line. Although zombies are usually created by scientific means in most films, they also carry on characteristic of the supernatural horror genre and that is that they are only killed by removing the head or destroying the brain.

The Winds of Change

Although I have worked endless amounts on my original idea of a zombie film I have now decided that my plan for it will not work, the idea of actually having a zombie attack a main character in the opening sequences is not particularly good, therefore I have decided that I will now do a more subtle idea of having a vampire attack suggested only by shadows, this I think will suit an opening much more as if this were to be made into a full feature length film the vampire itself would not be shown until later in the film. I have made the decision that i am going to make this a contemporary supernatural horror rahter than traditional, i feel it will be easier for me to film a horror of this nature, thereofore i will be able to make it more effective, however i will still retain some of the gotic codes, such as the use of the church.

Below is the story board that i have produced as an idea of what i would like to produce, and below that are the two timelines of both sound and vision, which show what i want to produce.

Artefact 2

On creating my ideas for my second artefact I have decided that I am going to create the opening of a horror movie, specifically the opening of a zombie film, I find that this also fits in with the recent revival of this specific subgenre of horror. My first and probably most difficult obstacle will be how to make the film look professional and not too obscenely gory and ridiculous given my extremely low budget. The story board which I originally created has now been added to and done properly on A3 but has yet to be put onto any computer and therefore is not yet on this blog. My next step is to research the genre that I have chosen to get more ideas, techniques and to further the development of my story board, which will be on here soon.

Edited

After having shot the film we have now also edited it too, and it went pretty smoothly I have to admit, although with one or two slight hitches towards the end, I love the beginning of our piece with Larissa walking up to the door I noticed that there was glitch type noise at the end of the clip so I snipped it off making sure that her approach to the door matched to where she was relative to the door in the clip previous. As she enters through the door the clip through the pane of glass actually had another member of our class in, luckily we were able to edit him out so that the shot looked ok. The next real point was getting the transition from the hallway to the classroom ok this didn’t take too long and I found finally that I was happy with what came out. After this the conversation scene was next, and the two pieces of film that we had shot had to be put together smoothly, I cut them and adjusted the two pieces so that it ran smoothly, the only hitch was that the last shot of Lauren speaking was cut a bit too short towards the end, something to bear in mind next time.

New Style?

I decided that as my page looks just a tad bland I'd spruce it up a bit, what do you think?

Film Shot

We have shot our piece of film in which someone enters a room, sits down and exchanges conversation with another person (only one sentence each though). Although we have already created our story board we also decided to add some extra bits too. We started off by filming Larissa with a low angle shot as she moves away from the camera; we achieved this by placing the camera on the floor. We then filmed a shot of Larissa opening the door at the end of the hall way at an angle from the side. As she enters the door the camera cuts over to a shot of her moving away from the camera as you can see her through a pane of glass in the door through which she has just passed. In the next hallway the camera pans right as Larissa walks down the hall way and opens a door on the right side of the camera, with the camera panning across. On the other side of the door the camera films her entering the room, at which point it cuts to an over the should shot of someone sitting at a table, and Larissa sitting down at the table saying "Sorry I’m late". The final shot is another over the shoulder shot from behind Larissa of the other person sitting at the other end of the table saying "That’s alright, better late than never"

Storyboard Done!

We have got all the pictures that we need to compose our storyboard, now all we have to do is film it. First of all i roughly drew up what I wanted to be in our piece, a few basic shots of someone entering a room and sitting down at a table. We then proceeded to take pictures of what we wanted to film; from this I have produced a storyboard with which to produce the film from.

Basic Angles Shot!

Finally I have caught up on the work from my delayed entry into the course and have filmed my camera angle exhibition piece. We shot an array of different angle shots to showcase our abilities, we edited the video and it’s all finished!

Damn the Macs!

The Mac, beautiful looking and soft to the touch, but underneath its cherub like exterior breathes the heart of the most incompatible personal computer system that has been forged on all of planet earth, In other words the Mac iMovie software is being annoying and is one step back from what I already know, oh well, the show must go on!

Better Late Than Never

Finally I have created a blog, better late than never they always say, got some catching up to do now :)